What’s new with MagCloud, the revolutionary print-on-demand magazine service.

Author: Kent

Alex Ogle is one of our favorite artists, comic book makers, and illustrators, and he recently financed an art book through Kickstarter. We were lucky enough to catch up with him and chat about his success.

First things first, why do a Kickstarter for a print-on-demand comic book project?

Depending on your success level, print-on-demand can be a great resource. Comics are traditionally printed in the largest numbers possible to lower the cost of each book. With my first successful Kickstarter, I had 214 backers and my lowest level to include books was $18. That is many times higher than the current comic book cover price. This helps cover costs on a quick-turnaround, small run that can be shipped out immediately to your backers. Traditional printing minimums are often around 500 copies and take much longer to get the books in-hand.

The nice thing about on-demand is I can get extremely small runs like 50 copies before my next convention within days, not weeks. I feel like now is a great time to be making indie comics this way.

How did you determine your reward levels?

You should always take into account shipping the books to yourself, printing costs, packaging, and shipping to your backers. This can give you a real cost-of-production per book. But the best way to start is to write out your levels with what feels right to you as a consumer and what would appeal to you. Then, run the numbers and make sure you are covered on all your levels. The most important thing is to make an interesting and fun product.

How much overall planning and number crunching did you do?

I go over the numbers until I feel comfortable. I think it is important to make sure there is enough profit (above cost) to cover the unexpected. If you are prepared, then your project has the greatest chance to be an amazing experience.

Getting backers is key, of course, to success. The big question is: How do you get them?

Do something interesting and tell everyone! I made postcard-sized announcements and gave them out at several comic conventions. I posted on message boards about my art and included info about the campaign. I shared images on social media and even tried some paid social media ads. (I’ve never had much return on any paid ads, so it’s probably not the way to go from my experience.)

You’ve done four Kickstarter campaigns, and three were successful—which is a pretty good success rate since the overall Kickstarter success rate is reported to be about 40%. What did you learn from that first one that didn’t get fully funded?

One thing you should know about Kickstarter is that you can’t delete the campaign if it fails. My first campaign was about getting back into creating comics. I made a simple campaign about that only. The problem is I didn’t focus at all on the produced product of the campaign. It’s pretty much a perfect example of what not to do.

It seems like you’ve used practically the whole MagCloud arsenal. How many formats have you used, and which is your favorite?

So far, I’ve used Standard, Digest, Tabloid, and Poster. My favorite is Tabloid. I love showing off the 11×17 version of “The Changing Tales” at conventions. It really looks like something special in that scale.

Did you use our Group Ship option for any of your backer levels? (This is the ability to send out books to multiple addresses through a single order)

In the past, I have preferred to hand-sign all the books which have held me back from using the service. Possibly in the future, I’ll give an option for an unsigned, directly-shipped version.

It’s that time of the year again. The time when delivery trucks act as surrogate Santas, delivering joy to the world (and publications to you and yours). In order to make sure those publications get to you on time, follow the order deadlines below. Of course, we live in a world of snow storms, reindeer stampedes, and PO Boxes, so ordering early is always better.

This month we bring you an interview with Colored Pencil, one of the bestselling publications on MagCloud. We asked them about the keys to their success, their favorite formats, and what keeps them going. And they really impressed us with their use of adwords, Facebook, MagCloud’s messaging platform, and the MagCloud app. But it’s not just their business acumen that we like; Colored Pencil is a beautiful and high-quality monthly publication that offers readers exactly what they’re looking for: Expert drawing instruction and inspiration.

A: The mission statement for COLORED PENCIL Magazine is “inspiration for the passionate colored pencil artist” and I think that sums it up best. Our goal is to produce a monthly magazine that will excite artists enough to pick up their pencils and create!

Q: How many people are involved in each issue? What’s your production schedule like?

A: We include on average about 12 contributors per issue. We have a 20 day turn around to design, edit, proof, and print.

Q: How do you market your magazine?

A: Most of our audience has found us through word-of-mouth but we also do a lot of contests and giveaways each month—partnering with other companies to cross-promote brands. We also try to optimize our ranking in the search engines in part by using Google Ad Words and taking advantage of Facebook’s target marketing by using their advertising tools and insights to track our progress. Social Media plays a big part in customer acquisition so we try to stay active and involved where we think our artists are.

Our goal is to produce a monthly magazine that will excite artists enough to pick up their pencils and create!

Q: How many different MagCloud products do you use, and is there one that’s more successful for you?

A: We basically order the Standard 8.25×10.75 Saddle Stitch binding magazines. We love that we can have our readers buy direct, link, and even pin our products to their social media pages like Pinterest! Not only are we available in the MagCloud store but also on the MagCloud iOS app. It is great to be able to view all our Sales Statistics to see exactly how much our profit is and where our revenue is coming from.

Q: Do you keep in contact with your customer base? Any tips you have for others?

A: One of the first things we do when we publish is send a notification to our MagCloud followers so they are among the very first to know when the issue is out. We also produce bi-weekly newsletters to promote our magazine and let our readers keep up with all our news, contests, and updates.

Social Media plays a big part in customer acquisition so we try to stay active and involved where we think our artists are.

Q: How do you decide on pricing?

A: Comparative pricing at first was difficult as many magazines at the newsstands were being offered at lower prices then we could but in recent years, as digital has become increasingly popular, not only does it give us a competitive level playing field when it comes to digital sales, but we have seen other print publication prices rise allowing us to compete in print as well. Being a niche magazine also gives you the advantage of having limited competition and being able to pack our pages with content that is highly desirable, giving it a higher value all around. I must note also that the high quality of MagCloud print on their thick 80# paper also makes each of our long lasting issues a collectable!

Q: What do you do besides publishing COLORED PENCIL Magazine?

A: Our Editor-in-Chief, Sally Robertson, started off as a BlurbNation book designer, then turned publisher. Currently we have all of our focus on our successful monthly COLORED PENCIL Magazine.

Q: Any parting words for other publishers?

A: We have heard all the statistics of failed magazines and the difficulty facing the publishing field but with companies like MagCloud assisting you, you can really compete in ways never before possible and take lower costs risks then you ever dared to dream. If you start with a good idea and a passion to pursue it, anything is possible!